The notaría (notary office) and the Registro Público (public registry) are two offices of SAREN (Servicio Autónomo de Registros y Notarías, the national registries and notaries service) with different functions. The notaría certifies who signed a document. The Registro records acts concerning the property so that they are valid against third parties. Signing the sale only at a notaría does not replace registration.
The difference in a table
| Notaría Pública | Registro Público | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Gives fe pública (public certification) to acts and facts that occur in the notary's presence or by electronic means (art. 68) | Records acts concerning ownership and other real rights over properties (art. 46) |
| Main effect | Certifies the otorgamiento (signing): who signed, before the notary | Without registration, the sale has no effect against third parties (Código Civil, the Civil Code, art. 1.924) |
| Where | Any notaría, for a home lease (2026 law, art. 9) | The office for the place where the property is located (Código Civil, art. 1.915) |
| Typical documents | Opción de compra-venta (purchase option agreement), power of attorney, lease | Sale, partition, mortgage, gift |
Articles without another reference are from the Ley de Registros y Notarías (Registries and Notaries Law; Gaceta Oficial N° 6.668 Extraordinario, December 16, 2021).
What each office does under the law
The notaría. The notary identifies the parties, informs them of the content and consequences of the act and records having done so (art. 78). A notarial document is one executed in the notary's presence or before a consular official acting in a notarial capacity (art. 79). Article 75 lists what it authenticates, including: contracts in general (num. 1), powers of attorney and their revocations (num. 2), option contracts to acquire rights over properties (num. 3) and signatures (num. 15).
The Registro Público. Its purpose is to record acts concerning ownership and other real rights over properties (art. 46). Its mission is to give legal certainty to recorded acts "con respecto a terceros, mediante la publicidad registral" (with respect to third parties, through registry publicity) (art. 26). Recording does not validate a void or voidable act (art. 44).
The Registro Principal (principal registry) is a different office: it records academic degrees, among other acts, and keeps the duplicates of registries and notarías (art. 66). The sale is not registered there.
At both offices, the document must be drafted and given the visado (lawyer's sign-off) by a lawyer registered with the Instituto de Previsión Social del Abogado (lawyers' social welfare institute) (art. 23).
Effects between the parties and against third parties
The Código Civil (Gaceta Oficial N° 2.990 Extraordinario, 1982) explains why the sale should not stop at the notaría:
For the Sala de Casación Civil (civil cassation chamber) of the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court), authentication does not make the document a public one: it gives public effect to the signing, not to the content (sentencia N° 624 of 2003, as cited by a superior court in Carabobo in 2012). Also, a private document cannot be registered if the signatures were not authenticated or verified in court (art. 1.923).
Which document goes to which office
| Document | Where | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Opción de compra-venta | Notaría (optional) | Ley de Registros y Notarías, art. 75, num. 3 |
| Sale of the property | Registro Público | Código Civil, art. 1.920, num. 1; Ley de Registros y Notarías, art. 46 |
| Home lease (2026 law) | Notaría if the parties wish; it can be private | Ley de arrendamiento de vivienda de 2026, art. 9 |
| Lease longer than six years | Registro Público | Código Civil, art. 1.920, num. 5 |
| Power of attorney to sell or buy | Notaría or Venezuelan consulate | Ley de Registros y Notarías, arts. 75 and 79 |
| Partition of an inheritance or other co-ownership that includes properties | Registro Público | Ley de Registros y Notarías, art. 46, num. 2 |
The opción is valid between the parties without a notaría, but notarizing it helps prove it: see the guide to the opción de compra-venta.
The lease. The Ley del Régimen Especial de Arrendamiento de Inmuebles Destinados a Vivienda (Gaceta Oficial N° 7.065 Extraordinario, August 7, 2026) says the contract "podrá ser autenticado ante cualquier Notaría Pública" (may be authenticated before any public notary office), without preventing it from being signed privately (art. 9). It only applies to leases agreed after it came into force (art. 2). See whether the lease contract must be notarized.
The sale. It is signed before the Registro Público, with the ISLR (income tax) advance payment form and the solvencia municipal (municipal tax clearance): without them the registrar cannot record it (art. 97). The step by step is in the guide to registering the sale of a property.
How much each office charges
The notaría charges fixed amounts; the Registro, for a sale, a percentage of the value. The law sets caps in petros (PTR) and SAREN set the amounts in Providencias (administrative orders) N° 001 (Registros Públicos) and N° 004 (Notarías Públicas), Gaceta Oficial N° 42.301 of January 20, 2022. In 2023 SAREN reported that those fees were still in force.
| Procedure | Amount | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Notaría: processing the document for authentication | 0.10 PTR | Prov. 004, art. 5, num. 1 |
| Notaría: authenticated document | 0.20 PTR for the first sheet and 0.02 PTR for each remaining sheet | Prov. 004, art. 5, num. 6 |
| Notaría: opción de compra-venta | 1 PTR | Prov. 004, art. 5, num. 18 |
| Notaría: power of attorney | 0.02 PTR | Prov. 004, art. 5, num. 5 |
| Registro: sale or partition of an inheritance (processing fee) | 0.5% up to 500 PTR of value; 1% from 501 to 1,000 PTR; 2% from 1,001 PTR (percentages in the law) | Ley, art. 83, num. 7 |
| Registro: certificación de gravámenes (lien certificate) in a sale | 0.30 PTR for the first year, plus 0.02 to 0.15 PTR per additional year depending on the value | Prov. 001, art. 5, num. 2 |
| Registro: recording a power of attorney | 0.40 PTR | Prov. 001, art. 5, num. 12 |
| Registro: transaction under 100 PTR | 0.50 PTR in total (the law allows up to 1 PTR) | Prov. 001, art. 6; Ley, art. 84 |
The percentages for the sale are in the law itself. The same art. 83 tells the director of SAREN to set the amount of each fee by providencia "dentro de los límites previstos en este artículo" (within the limits set in this article), but Providencia N° 001 has no item of its own for this fee: it only mentions it in two numerals (14 and 18), "sin perjuicio de lo establecido en el numeral 7 del artículo 83" (without prejudice to what numeral 7 of article 83 provides). That Gaceta therefore has no percentage lower than the law's. Separately, the sale gives rise to a municipal tax in unidades tributarias (tax units), paid by the buyer (art. 91).
Everything is paid in bolívares at the value of the petro on the date of the request (arts. 83 and 86). We found no published unit replacing the petro: ask for the calculation in writing.
Which Registro covers your property
The Código Civil requires the property to be registered at the office "del Departamento o Distrito donde esté situado" (of the Department or District where it is located) (art. 1.915). These are old territorial divisions; in practice, you look for the Registro Público that serves the property's municipality. If one title covers properties in different jurisdictions, it is registered at all the corresponding offices (art. 1.916).
To find it:
If the case involves heirs, powers of attorney from abroad or properties in several jurisdictions, consult a lawyer.